Fonts they are a-changing

[Rene Stephenson]

Thanks, Dov.
  
  I have asked the highest level English-speaking person in the division  stateside, and at this time there is no more definitive answer. I have  been advised that some of the specifics of the branding guidelines are  still being debated, and the lack of granularity on the font specs  could indicate that they're still working on that. So now I've been  asked for a recommendation of which in that family would be best for  this division's needs. This person wants to try to make a request  before everything is etched in stone, rather than wait and see if we  can work with what they finalize and publish in April.
  
  So, which of the Helvetica / Helvetica Neue fonts would have the  largest character set, the greatest embedding abilities, and optimal  mappings? We would need a bold, italic, and bold italic weight/angle  for whichever one we go with, but as long as it's not the  narrow/condensed or heavy/black or outline versions, they're open to  recommendations for the base style of Helvetica Neue font. 
  
  Would any of the Roman, Medium, or Light versions of Helvetica Neue provide greater character sets or embedding options?  
  
  Actually, if there's some table that provides a comparison of the  features of the different fonts in the Helvetica Neue family, that  would be ideal, but I'm not having any luck "googling" on it. All I  find is places to type sample text for comparison or lists of the  alphabet for the fonts, but nothing statistical about the fonts. 
  
  I was kind of hoping someone on the list would be intimately familiar with that font family and how FM > PDF handle it.
  
  FWIW - Sometimes our PDFs are sent to professional print shops, but  most of the time the PDFs are just distributed on CD for onsite  printing, usually on laser printers. 
  
  Thanks,
  Rene
  
  

Dov Isaacs <isaacs at adobe.com> wrote:  I would strongly concur with Guy's advice.

There are dozens upon dozens of fonts available with
the names Helvetica and Helvetica-Neue from different
sources (including Adobe and Linotype) as well as 
fonts with those names bundled with the MacOS.

HOWEVER, despite the same names, there differences
between them, whether in the character sets, mappings,
embedding privileges, font metrics, etc.

Unless you standardize on a particular version of
any font and enforce use of that version, you are
being setup for disasters including missing text,
wrong text, relayout, etc., especially when everything
is supposed to come together for PDF file production,
printing, or both.

 - Dov